Samuel b



UNITED STATES `PATENT OFFICE. i

SAMUEL B. BROAD, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

LIFE-SAVING- RAFT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 28,150, dated May 8, 1860.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL B. BROAD, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Life-Rafts, of which the following, with the accompanying drawings, is so full and clear a description as that others skilled in .constructing and working other life-rafts will be able to make and usethis my improved raft.

There are so many objections to the use of life boats, including the large amount of room they occupy on shipboard, limited cary rying capacity, loss of time and risk in low ering them from the ship, and their liability to capsize or swamp or puncture, that for crowded emigrant and other vessels they are but little to be relied upon. Like objections, in part, apply to their use on shore stations for saving life and property in cases of shipw-reck. It therefore has been frequently roposed to employ, either as substitutes or life boats or as additional means, life rafts, which not only afford more convenient space for the quick stowage of passengers or crew and goods in an emergency, especially women and children, but which are free from being capsized or swamped. Rafts, to he largely serviceable, however, should be capable when not in use, of stowage within a small space or compass, of rapid and easy construction and so that sailors, who understand the tying and lashing of ropes better than they do nailing or carpenters work, will have no difiiculty in puttin them together; and they should rather e, for the most part, of soft or yielding thanv rigid materials. These objects, to a certain extent, have already been attained in or by various rafts, and I am quite aware that there is nothing new in the mere use of soft inflatable buoys, cross spars or braces, a sheet covering or deck, and network of rope with lashings to strengthen certain parts and afford convenient means for holding on. But more than this is needed. It is desirable that all strain in a rough sea should be thrown upon or borne by rope and rope so that the inflated vessels and their coverings may be preserved from tearing and the several parts of the raft from parting. And it is further desirable that the raft should present a good broadside in the water when borne by the surf toward shore, and a prow surface when being dragged against the surf from. shore to ship. All these and other advantaves my improved raft combines in a most effectual manner, and however old it may be to use ordinary boats connected and covered with sheets or tarpaulin to form a raft, or infiatable bags or buoys with cross spars and sheet deck,-or however old folding or inflatable boats may be, per se, my raft taken as a whole will be found as distinct from all others as it is superior in point of service.

-In the accompanying drawings, Fivure l re resents a plan view of my improved raft; Figs. 2 and 3 vertical sections thereof taken in directions at right angles to each other; and Fig. 4 an elevation or diagram in illustration of a certain mode of rigging up a mast which may or may not be used in connection with the raft.

The parts marked A, B, and C, represent three inflatable pontoons made of iexible and air and water tight material such as india rubber or its compounds. These pon toons, when the raft 1s fitted up, are arranged to lie one on either side and one in the middle and parallel to each other or thereabouts. Where more than three are used, then, instead ofa pontoon being in the middle, the third and additional pontoon or pontoons may be,` disposed at suitable distances from the side pontoons to which they are intermediate. Said pontoons resemble, when inia-ted, canoes or boats with prow ends and flush decks. They may be made either in sections so as to have water tight compartments or be undivided,-and may be inflated, previous to launching the raft, by bellows made to connect with nozzles (a) having valvular caps (b) that serve to shut and open ingress and which are closed after the pontoons have been inflated.

Surrounding and incasing the pontoons in a loose manner are flexible shells or canvas covers (D) that serve to protect the rubber interior of the pontoons or rubber pontoons from general injury and from being chafed by a. rope cage or net (E) which each pontoon is provided with. These rope cages (E) are so constructed as to embrace both longitudinally and transversely at different points the flexible pontoons with their shells or covers.

F, G, H, are spars lying across the several pontoons transversely and lashed to and made to lock with or pass through the rope cages (E) of the pontoons (as seen in Fig. 3.) and so that all upward pull of the spars the manner of a cage with suitable ring belts or and of the canvas or liexble deck (I) which latter is united to the yspars andprows of the pontoons by lashings (d) ,will be thrown upon the cages (E) and said ull be made by rope upon rope by means o the lashings (d), rope deck-binding (e) and cages (E),

blocks for drawing the several lashings and the deck taut, the rope deck-binding (e) being stayed and the deck strengthened and means for holding on afforded by net-work (f) of rope covering the deck. The spars, F, G, H, may either be made in sections fitting together, or in entire pieces. IIinged strips, if desired, maybe arrangedY longitudinally of the pontoons to stifl'en them in that direction.

When it is desired to rig up may be done by providing a timber having a guiding step (L) and locking spring (m) so that the mast (M) may be slipped into its place horizontally, as shown by red lines in Fig. 4:, and then be turned up and the spring made to hold it, the timber (K) being arranged to be lengthwise over the central pontoon and it and the mast united to the pontoons and spars by suitable ropes and tackle. This mast arrangement however may be changed or dispensed with, and any suitable steering contrivance be employed or no Having thus described with suflicient minuteness my improved raft, I shall not, in View of what has been stated in the early part of this specification, otherwise than briefly allude, in conclusion, to certain merits of it. A raft so constructed may not only be readily taken apart and put together, and when not in use be folded away (pontoons and all) in a small space on board ship, but it is light to handle and may easily be conveyed along coast tov any point of rescue. Also, when all is fixed and lashed together, not only are the inflatable waterproof pontoons protected by their detached canvas covers or shells, but the rope net 'ork surrounding these latter'confines in both these and the and a rough sea beating the raft deck throws al a mast, this rubber pontoons from beneath on strain, by reason of the constructionA of the deck and its union and that of the spars with the cages, of rope upon ro e and not upon the pontoons direct or thelr canvas covers, hence these latter are protected from being torn by the deck and its spars jerking or pulling on them. Likewise, in making for shore with its load of human or other freight, said raft may be set so that its pontoons present a broadside to the action of the surf beating in toward shore, and, when coming back for further freight or on being dragged from coast to ship, 1t may be` turned to offer a prow resistance to the action of the surf, it beinothen, too, comparatively or altogether fiee from load; by which alteration of the set of the raft its passage to and from the ship is facilitated. The pontoons, too, not being mere shapeless ba 's or buoys, will steady the run of the raft, dispense with separate keel fixings, and render steering easy. Striking a rock or reef, it will not bepunctured or swampe and will yield and cling to a cliff to give a chance for escape. And, finally, the buoyant portions or pontoons may be separately used as boats in making a shallow or narrow creek and .on other occasions and such ontoons being flexible are less liable to be amaged by such use. All these oints of value combined make my improve( raft more than ordinarily serviceable.

I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

A life raft constructed substantially as described, by forming it of three or more flexible and inflatable waterproof pontoons each incased by a cage or net work of rope, in combination with a flexible deck, bound and braced by rope as described, and cross spars arranged to lock with the cages of the pontoons, and the whole being lashed and united together` essentially as and for the purpose or purposes herein set forth.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

SAM. B. BROAD. Witnesses:

J. F. CALLAN, A. GREGORY. 

